U.S. Pat. No. 1,092,591 issued Apr. 7, 1914 to Pajeau teaches mechanical construction blocks. U.S. Pat. No. 1,113,371 issued Apr. 7, 1914 to Pajeau teaches mechanical construction blocks. These patents teach the children's toys known as "Tinker Toys" and are essentially sets of rods with tapered or slit ends, round pieces with holes for inserting the rods, blocks with holes and grooves for attaching together and to the rods, and the systems are useful and entertaining for children and other modeling functions for building objects or structures and being fully disassembleable.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,176,428 issued Apr. 6, 1965 to Slingluff teaches games and toys embodying rods and coupling means of various characters or connecting the rods together at different angles to fabricate buildings, bridges, etc. Resilient and deformable straws are employed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,600,825 issued Aug. 24, 1971 to Pearce teaches synthesized natural geometric structures. The invention is an assembly, kit or set of component parts for assembling erecting or construction of geometric figures to be used for purposes o science and research, modeling, and architecture, and consists of a universal node having spokes extending therefrom and allows for aa plurality of nodes to be interconnected with specific geometric patterns being created thereby.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,628 issued Jun. 9, 1981 to Barlow teaches a geometric construction toy apparatus. This is a toy apparatus for the formation of 2 and 3 dimensional geometric structures and includes a plurality of substantially spherical connector members each having a plurality of radial sockets or prongs arranged around a central point in the connector member, a plurality of slender connecting members in groups of different lengths and forming tetrahedrons, octahedrons and cubic structures.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,900 issued Dec. 1, 1981 to Rayner teaches nodal elements with channels for push fitted rods. This construction toy has a plurality of nodal elements and a plurality of co-operation rod elements with each nodal element being spherical and having channels formed on the peripheral surfaces. The rod elements have a connecting portion at each end with a grooved cross sectional end shape which can be push fitted into the co-operating channels off the nodal elements.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,701,131 issued Oct. 20, 1987 to Hildebrandt teaches a geometric modeling kit and method of making same the system is made up of a plurality of nodes and shape coded connectors extending therebetween, the nodes having a plurality of outer polygonal elements. The elongated connectors have precisely shaped ends which are inserted into the polygonally shaped openings in the outer surfaces of the nodes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,684 issued Nov. 24, 1987 to Chen teaches a toy building block set. This invention has several blocks including a circular member on the outer circumference of which a plurality of connecting elements and sockets are provided whereby the block sets are capable of being developed into a variety of articles, and assembling with an inflatable member to enable the finished work to float on the surface of water.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,105 issued Sep. 17, 1991 to Glickman teaches a hub connector for tubes in toy construction set. This invention includes a central hub portion with a series of radially extending, split lugs. The tube members are inserted over the split lugs, thereby compressing the lugs and securing the tubes in place
U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,105 issued Aug. 11, 1992 to Glickman teaches multi planar connector element for construction toy. U.S. Pat. No. 5,238,438 issued Aug. 24, 1993 to Glickman teaches a construction toy and adapter. These two patents teach construction toys which have hub like central connectors and elongated members. The hub portions have end portions specially configured to be received into gripping sockets made of pairs of gripping arms formed of deflectable plastic material. Concave grooves adapted for lateral, snap-in assembly of structural elements allow various shapes and formations to be built.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,7677 issued Feb. 1, 1994 to Gelardi teaches construction sets with injection molded and extruded tube beams. Straght and curved tube beams have joint ends with flanges which control the depth of penetration of the beams into cylindrical receivers within cubic connectors.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,318,470 issued Jun. 7, 1994 to Denny teaches a modular construction assembly. The assembly consists of connecting hubs made of semi-spherical lobes and a central ring each having rounded protrusions, adapted to engage or receive the hollow ends of tubular members.
Other products currently available on the market include kits for constructing buildings and small greenhouses, etc. out of aluminum framing, etc. However, these products are for permanent constructions, require extensive assembly, or must be purchased preassembled. Furthermore, it is difficult to find modular units which can be used for flower trellises or structures to train flowers or other shrubbery onto.
Thus it would be desirable to provide simple, lightweight weight but high strength panels which could be used separately or in conjunction with others to create children's toys, construction blocks, geometric or molecular or architectural modeling tools, flower trellises, wall covering panels, or free standing, multidimensional structures such as greenhouses, spa covers, and the like.